Big Country Has Gentler Style, Crisper Sound

October 21, 1988|By Chris Heim.

Big Country, Peace in Our Time (Reprise): In the two years since these Scottish rockers last released an album, some of the bombastic winds seem to have been taken out of their sails. The result is a more gentle and subtle style and a crisper, more delicate sound. Many of the old trademarks remain, though, including their ``bagpipe guitar`` and a knack for undeniably catchy tunes that combine rock with traditional Scottish influences. Despite the portentous title, ``Peace in Our Time,`` like its three predecessors, relies less on polemics and more on illusive Highlands poetry to carry the weight of Big Country`s message.

Tom Waits, Big Time (Island): To say ``Big Time`` is a sound track is rather like calling Waits a pop singer. Just as Waits bends concert-film conventions in the film, the companion record provides unexpected twists and turns. The format itself is a challenge. Like the film, the record features live versions of songs from his last three studio albums. But it also includes two previously unreleased numbers, different versions of songs in the film and some songs that aren`t in the film. The CD version of ``Big Time`` has six additional songs, and good luck sorting it all out. What is clear is that he has taken some of his most challenging music to even higher levels. He has also shed some of the offbeat, smoky lounge jazz that typified his early work for a new world of influences, including Caribbean music, Argentinian nuevo tango, Brechtian music hall and more. Though his voice, never the smoothest of instruments, sounds even more strangled here, Waits has become an increasingly brilliant interpretive singer. There`s an irony in the title of this album. Waits, who seems to go farther afield with each release, is hardly likely to hit the ``Big Time.`` But in terms of artistry, he`s already at the top.

Monty Alexander, Jamboree (Concord Picante): This follow-up to the

``Ivory and Steel`` album of earlier this decade brings together Alexander`s ivory (piano) and the steel (drums) of Othello Molineaux, who appeared on the first LP, and Len ``Boogsie`` Sharp, one of Trinidad`s most accomplished and acclaimed steel drum players and arrangers. The interaction of the two instruments is brilliant and firmly proves, as few previous efforts have, that steel drums can more than hold their own in a rigorous jazz setting. ``Jamboree`` also brings together two musical worlds-jazz

improvisation and Caribbean rhythms-in a way that embellishes both. Though Alexander, a Jamaican by birth, uses some reggae influences, the predominant element is the livelier calypso style. The experiment doesn`t always work-a well-intentioned rendition of Bob Marley`s ``No Woman No Cry,`` for example, is ploddingly reverential-but, in the end, the talented players and the irrepressible music make this a first-rate ``Jamboree.``

Isaac Hayes, Love Attack (CBS): In the follow-up to his 1986 ``comeback`` album, ``U-Turn,`` Hayes offers more of the hot buttered soul that first made him a star in the late `60s and early `70s. It`s another ``turn the lights down low and move a little closer`` album, with Hayes` rich, velvety vocals, slow and sexy songs and trademark raps (not those mile-a-minute rhyming things of today, but long, langorous conversations that build into a song). Highlights include the more up-tempo single, ``Showdown,`` and an updated version of ``I Stand Accused,`` which first appeared on the now out-of-print 1970 album, ``The Movement.`` Side 2 gets bogged own in its own sticky sweetness and almost comes to a complete halt with the final, fatuous ``Love Won`t Let Me Wait,`` where ``guest vocalist`` Yasmin Jones is reduced to heavy breathing for the song`s six minutes. Maybe Hayes thought listeners would be doing too much heavy breathing of their own by that point to notice.